#um. no theyre. theyre selling it to u. youre using it. we're using it.

[torosdottir]

i think its funny when people are like "actually all our environmental issues are completely the fault of these few big companies" like oh damn are they doing that by themselves? thats soooo weird i wonder what they have to gain from that. oh we're buying the shit? oh its us too? damn i guess the personal responsibility thing is problematic and outdated tho huh. hm

[juni-ravenhall]

erissa introduction rewrite

this is written with the intent that players wouldnt have been told by sse that erissa is a dark rider, so we dont immediately know who she is. also it wouldnt take place at the current time in the story, this is mostly written to fit into an imaginary entire rewrite of the story. also, this is just some ideas off the top of my head, there are plenty other ways to rewrite it!

we're in jarlaheim and a cat runs past with a ball of yarn in its mouth, and this girl who's chasing it stops and asks us for help, almost crying, her yarn is gone. mc is like oh i will help you dont worry!! we race the cat on horseback (silly race with cat jumping on fences and stuff as we chase it), and get her the yarn back, but its kinda ruined now, and she sobs, telling us she's trying to finish a crochet project as a gift for her best friend, and she shouldnt have tried to play with the cat, shes angry at herself for letting the yarn get ruined, it was the last ball she had in that colour. mc is empathetic and goes like "wait! maybe i know some people that can custom dye yarn" and it leads u on a classic sso quest, talking to idk, farah, daxton, mrs holdsworth, collecting plants for dyeing, until we've made her new yarn.

as we do that, we're going around with erissa tagging along riding double on our horse - she comments "i wish i had my own horse, too! maybe i will crochet one!" and mc is like haha yeah thatd be cute :) and everyone else we meet for the quest just sees her as a sweet kid too and cheer her on for her project, farah talks about how great it is to create stuff and how happy she is to see kids doing handicrafts.

this questline finishes with erissa happy for our help, and we get a crocheted doll saddlebag pet from her as thanks, "ive made several of these, theyre my own special design, you can have one!". she also says, "this yarn we made together will be even better than what i had before, because its infused with your energy!" mc is like: um yeah sure! power of friendship :) (the item description for the crocheted saddlebag pet says something like "aww! this little yarn friend wants to come with you everywhere you go!")

later after other random quests (time matters! it shouldnt be immediately after! we have lots of other stuff to do around jorvik) we've met up with linda at her room in jarlaheim, first we talk some soul rider stuff, then we're going out to have a snack at a café, as we pass by jarlaheim's fountain, we see it has yarn art on it ("yarnbombing", aka yarn graffiti) and maybe some other objects have too, and linda is like "yeah, that stuff as been showing up lately, i admire the creativity and the skill it takes, but im not sure about doing it as graffiti. it looks nice though?"

we get to the café and as we sit down, we overhear someone at another table talking about that the yarnbombing problem is getting out of hand. their postbox was covered in crochet this morning and they couldnt get it open! "and i was looking forward to reading the latest gossip in the jorvik gazette, too!" linda and mc mostly think its funny and not a big problem. "maybe this artist will become jorvik's own famous street artist soon, and then that postbox could sell for 10k shillings!"

we might talk about some other soul rider related thing quietly at the café, but then we walk linda back to her place. as we arrive, though…. we notice that linda's front door has been yarnbombed and cant be opened without removing the yarn art. "um… maybe it is getting a little bit out of hand", linda says. there are moons and some other symbols in the crochet design, alongside crocheted eyeballs. "thats a bit weird, huh? its gotta be coincidence, but its funny there's moons on this… or could one of our druid friends be doing this? those eyeballs remind me of the scene in that episode of--" … so linda and mc take down the yarn, linda says she'll bring it inside and use it as a throw blanket if her cat doesn't get to it first, and we say bye for now.

after this, theres a few quests i havent planned out in detail, but basically, every soul rider get a crochet object thru different quests. alex' beanie gets torn during some other quest, and mc is like "hey i know a kid who can make you a new one!" - we go back and see erissa again. (maybe mc is thinking to ask her if shes doing the yarn bombing, but decides against it, since shes a sweet kid and seems so nice.) alex starts wearing erissa's beanie. erissa also tells us, "remember how i said i wanted to crochet a horse? well, i started working on it! i cant wait to show you when its done!" idk what objects lisa and anne get, yet, but for lisa it should be relatively easy to come up w something. anne is given something but maybe doesnt actually use it/keep it because it doesnt fit her style.

while doing various quests, we have those DC drone thingies spying on us and have to break them or get away from them. "how do they keep finding us?"

sometime later, we're with the soul riders investigating some GED or DC stuff in epona, it might be related to CHILL (tie in the rest of the soul riders to that plot!). we have races and stuff like, "race all the soul riders to x location" for fun during the quests. we eventually go to that toxic dump pond near crescent moon, and then into the village. as we ride over to talk to npcs, we hear "…it was one thing in the towns, but now there's a bunch of that graffiti stuff out in the mirror marshes, and its not good for the environment, the poor animals and plants can get caught in it!"

"whos doing graffiti in a swamp?" lisa asks, making a face. "hey, graffiti is the people's art, maybe it's the swamp monsters' art, too" alex says. pamela moonriver starts talking to us (shes met all of us before). "oh, im glad to see you all, there's a problem. look, my beehives were covered in yarn while i was making dinner! who did this?! i mean its nice handicraft work, but my poor bees cant live like that. maybe it would help keep them warm in the winter though?" "oh, we heard someone talking about graffiti. did they mean the yarnbombing?" we ask. "yes, its really becoming a problem, its showing up everywhere. would you mind helping me free my bees?" we help take the yarn off the beehives, pamela offers us some tea in the kitchen and we update her on some of our investigations (since shes part of CHILL) - maybe she gives us some new info to consider about what to do next about GED stuff etc.

as we leave, we hear an angry old man complaining loudly nearby. hayden is trying to rip apart a piece of crochet, failing, and just dumps it angrily in the trash instead. "you irresponsible youngsters with your stupid hobbies!!!" hes pointing a finger at us. "dont you care how this affects the eco system!!! no, you only care about your stupid 'fun'!!! pah!!! nonsense!!!" "uh… you've got the wrong person, we didnt do anything!" "well, that beanie (alex') looks exactly like all those stupid things showing up in the marshes, so i dont believe you!" (there might be more dialogue here but idc.) the soul riders already had some reason to check out the swamp, related to GED/CHILL plans/etc. its gotten dark outside but we head there anyway (or maybe have a reason to try to spot some suspicious GED activity in the dark etc). as we get there, we see big yarn "spiderwebs" on the trees in different colours, with crochet plushie flies with sad eyes - wrapped up in yarn, stuck in the web... crochet eyeballs covering rocks, a bunch of mildly creepy yarnbombing art.

i dont have super clear thoughts on what happens now exactly (i came up with all of this pretty quickly after all) but basically as they ride through the swamp, maybe nearing that one pandoria portal?, erissa finally shows up. mc and the others are first like, "oh wow, what are you doing here, kid? its you making all this!? i cant believe you did all this yarn graffiti by yourself!" erissa is like "hehe… i didnt! i had help from my… friends!!!" the little crochet dolls come out from around her and are moving on their own. everyone is shocked, "whats going on?! they're alive!" mc is holding the doll erissa gave us in our hand, as we watch it start moving, dropping it in surprise. "shes using some kind of magic… but im not getting a good feeling about this… could it be--?!" erissa goes, "my friends are so helpful, you see, they let me hear what they hear, see what they see… its important to have a network, isnt it?" (the shot has her by the yarn spiderwebs and with her dolls) "im so glad you treasured my handmade gifts! sabine always rejects my presents, she's so ungrateful." "sabine?!" alex pulls off her beanie and stares at it. "hang on… could it be, if shes with DC…??" "thats how they knew where we were! thats why those drones kept showing up!" erissa interrupts and goes, "hey mc! you know what? i promised to show you, and i finally finished it… my biggest project yet… my own horse!!!" dramatic shot of her getting on her crochet horse, etc. maybe there should be strings of yarn kind of sticking out from the horse and around erissa almost like tentacles or arms, it would feel more threatening than just a yarn horse. im too tired to think of more dialogue rn but there could be strings of multicoloured yarn starting to climb up the legs of the soul riders' horses, everyone goes, "run!!!" and then theres a challenging mini-boss race through the swamp. avoiding getting caught by erissa and her yarn creatures, the yarn spiderweb obstacles, and maybe we have an option to actually use magic, so mc and alex are trying to zap erissa's creatures as we ride.

i dont have energy rn to come up with more - the point of this rewrite was to show how you could build up meeting erissa and seeing yarn stuff in the game over time and over several quests, the way that most stories would to create intrigue and foreshadowing. lots of details could be changed, and maybe other dark riders show up after erissa brings forth her horse, maybe theres something with the pandoria portal in the marshes, etc.